Customer Reviews

A Nixon Man: A Novel

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Michael Cahill's writing is so natural, and his story so entertaining, that the novel feels like hanging out with a dear old friend. A coming-of-age story that leaves out the saccharine we often associate with this genre, showing instead all the raunchiness, paranoia, cruelty, insecurity, morbid shyness, confusion, and foolhardiness that are the reality of adolescence. The novel evokes characters so vividly,I felt sure they must be relatives or old friends, so clearly do they exist in my memory. The writing is at once natural and practiced, Cahill never chooses the obvious turn of phrase or metaphor. His unusual use of language, a kind of verbal acrobatics, is great fun. And it is hilarious, even at its saddest and most tense moments. Set against the backdrop of the Watergate hearings, the metaphor works as a story about the end of innocence, both for the country and for young Jack and his family. But beyond that, in examining his family and his relationship with his father, there is a sense of loss for all our "Nixon men" and all that implies. Men who lived through the Depression and World War II, who cannot believe their government would lie to them, or consider the possibility that there may have been a conspiracy to murder the President of the United States. Men who believe they can measure the worth of a man by his level gaze and the strength of his handshake. As a series of stories and adventures, the novel is well worth reading. But it achieves a poignancy and a level of reality of what it means to be human, to have dreams, to love, and to be disappointed that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

Found this book in a used book store. What a wonder. I loved it. The recollection of life in San Francisco in the early '70s reminded me of my own crazy youth and moved me immeasureably. The sensiblity is poignant and hilarious and profound. The wild masturbatory scene in the sand is virtuouso. The exploits of the main character, Jack, have stayed with me for days. This writer has a lot to say about family and love and loss. I hope the he publishes another book soon.

Comparable to the peculiar memories of thomas penman, thumbsucker, and the adrian mole diaries. Every adolescent male should read this book.

Its a shame that some authors live can off their celeberity and others (without publicity machines behind them) are far superior to the supposed masters. This book deserves to be a best seller and Cahill's storytelling runs circles around the John Irvings of the world.

Being the same age as the book's central figure added to the enjoyment, as recogntion of events - both public and private pop up on most every page. This great novel can not be recommended highly enough.

I found it so easy to empathize with Jack Costello, myself being his age at the start of Nixon's second term. Therefore, as I progressed through A Nixon Man and found myself mesmerized by it, I kept telling myself that my infatuation with the book was simply a result of my affinity with the character. However, in the powerful ending when Jack realizes that he himself has become a "monster," I was impressed at how subtly the author was able to build a story that ultimately hammers the reader over the head with a life lesson that all people must learn at some time in their lives.

Beautifully rendered by an obviously talented author. A must read. Would make a wonderful film, for all ages. History at its best.

Sometimes you read a book, particularly a first novel, and you look back at the final chapter, disheartened that it was all over so quickly...Jack Costello will stay with me for a while. I guess maybe all first novels will be compared with "Catcher" and that's probably okay, but Jack Costello could have kicked Holden Caufield's whiny, snot-nosed ass. A really terrific book.

For those of us that enjoy the written word, this book is a breath of fresh air--a real page turner. My wife, of course, hated it--kept me up all night. Truly a jewel in today's deluge of mediocrity.

It is so rare to find a book that is not afraid of true emotion. The best book about a family that I have read since "To Kill a Mockingbird." By the end of the book I found myself seeing the world through the main character Jackie Costello's eyes. The first person voice is that convincing.

There is a comforting familiarity to the Costello family presented in Mike Cahill's A Nixon Man. Maybe it's the false sense of normalcy we get from the domestic scenes of the Costello household. But, like the America I remember from my own childhood, there is something just a little bit off.

First, there's the monkey. He's a sex crazed truant who flees the order of the Costello's house only to be lured back again and again, usually with marshmallows used as bait. Then there is the narrator Jack, an eleven year old who is growing up a bit too fast, smoking pot in a friend's attic and taping his parent's telephone calls.

What is most rewarding to me, though, is the fact that the various subplots and political subtext of A Nixon Man remain appropriately in the background. The Costellos, even the right wing apologist father, are all admirably complex people.

The denouement of the Costellos as a family coincides neatly with the final act of the Nixon administration, a! nd in fact, the whole novel rings with appropriate Shakespearian overtones of the era. There are secrets lurking in the Costello house, and young Jack has no clue what they are. He's his own Sam Ervin or Howard Baker, digging into the investigation. And like the Watergate committee, he really has no idea what he is going to find.

Cahill's lean prose gives the whole book a nice momentum; I really expect this to be a major motion picture at some point.